All qualifications and part qualifications registered on the National Qualifications Framework are public property. Thus the only payment that can be made for them is for service and reproduction. It is illegal to sell this material for profit. If the material is reproduced or quoted, the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) should be acknowledged as the source.

SOUTH AFRICAN QUALIFICATIONS AUTHORITY

REGISTERED UNIT STANDARD:

Write and present for a wide range of purposes, audiences and contexts

SAQA US ID

UNIT STANDARD TITLE

115790

Write and present for a wide range of purposes, audiences and contexts

ORIGINATOR

SGB Communication Studies

PRIMARY OR DELEGATED QUALITY ASSURANCE FUNCTIONARY

-

FIELD

SUBFIELD

Field 04 - Communication Studies and Language

Language

ABET BAND

UNIT STANDARD TYPE

PRE-2009 NQF LEVEL

NQF LEVEL

CREDITS

Undefined

Regular-Fundamental

Level 5

Level TBA: Pre-2009 was L5

5

REGISTRATION STATUS

REGISTRATION START DATE

REGISTRATION END DATE

SAQA DECISION NUMBER

Reregistered

2015-07-01

2018-06-30

SAQA 10105/14

LAST DATE FOR ENROLMENT

LAST DATE FOR ACHIEVEMENT

2019-06-30

2022-06-30

In all of the tables in this document, both the pre-2009 NQF Level and the NQF Level is shown. In the text (purpose statements, qualification rules, etc), any references to NQF Levels are to the pre-2009 levels unless specifically stated otherwise.

This unit standard does not replace any other unit standard and is not replaced by any other unit standard.

PURPOSE OF THE UNIT STANDARD

This unit standard is intended to promote clear, unambiguous communication. It requires learners to follow a process in writing workplace specific texts. The ability to write plain language will improve the quality of business correspondence and other texts that are specific to a workplace environment. The achievement of this unit standard enables learners to recognise and use effectively textual conventions and features specific to business texts including those that require a particular format and/or specified legislated requirements. They carefully scrutinise their own and others' writing for accuracy, appropriateness and impact on different audiences and contexts. They edit and change where appropriate.

Learners credited with this unit standard are able to:

Use writing skills for specific purposes, audiences and contexts.

Access, process, re-organise, and synthesise information in order to present it.

Use appropriate language conventions, textual features and style for specific workplace purposes.

Draft and edit texts.

LEARNING ASSUMED TO BE IN PLACE AND RECOGNITION OF PRIOR LEARNING

The credit calculation is based on the assumption that learners are already competent in terms of the following outcomes or areas of learning: NQF level 4:

Workplace related texts include texts specific to a particular function in a business or other context such as sector specific documents, written comparisons of products, explanations, reviews, a wide range of report types, proposals and any other texts used within the specific sector and field of learning.

The target audience may include audiences internal to the organisation or external audiences in a wide range of contexts.

Identification and research of information requires the learner to access, analyse, evaluate, process, re-organise, synthesise and apply data for specific workplace or other related purposes.

Appropriate use of layout includes visual and multimedia presentations, headings, bullets, indexes, numbering and other layout features, appropriate phrasing of headings, and the use of stem/sentences and phrases for bullets.

Appropriate planning skills include time management pertaining to the specific purpose of a particular function in a business environment. The steps of the writing process such as planning, writing a first draft, editing, proofreading, final draft and presenting are followed.

Language usage in texts should include sector related vocabulary and terminology. Sentences must be meaningful, well structured, concise, unambiguous, clear and functional. Over complex sentence constructions refer to long constructions and the inappropriate use of the passive voice. Grammar, vocabulary, punctuation and language conventions must be appropriate to audience, purpose and context.

A variety of presentation formats include presenting the same information in different text formats such as graphs, tables, flow charts and diagrams.

Specific Outcomes and Assessment Criteria:

SPECIFIC OUTCOME 1

Use writing skills for specific purposes, audiences and contexts.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

ASSESSMENT CRITERION 1

Time management skills are demonstrated in the planning of the text.

ASSESSMENT CRITERION 2

Texts used in the workplace or other environments are identified for specific transactional functions and an indication is given of the purpose of each text.

ASSESSMENT CRITERION 3

The narrative voice appropriate to context, purpose and audience must be chosen.

ASSESSMENT CRITERION RANGE

Passive for scientific writing, adopting a persona for narrative, first person for memos, third person for minute taking or report writing, authorial comment within narrative voice, subjective or objective options, summarising, paraphrasing.

ASSESSMENT CRITERION 4

Texts produced demonstrate considered choice of content and justification for inclusion of decisions/incidents/requirements.

SPECIFIC OUTCOME 2

Access, process, re-organise, and synthesise information in order to present it.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

ASSESSMENT CRITERION 1

Ideas and information are gathered, organised and explicitly stated in a text.

ASSESSMENT CRITERION 2

Selection of information in the text is appropriate to purpose, target audience and workplace context.

ASSESSMENT CRITERION 3

Topic sentences clearly state the main idea of a paragraph and be relevant to the text as a whole.

ASSESSMENT CRITERION 4

Information and explicit ideas from more than one source are consolidated into a coherent and cohesive, synthesised text.

Workplace jargon is interpreted and rephrased in plain language or used appropriately in the correct context when the terminology is essential to the understanding of the text.

UNIT STANDARD ACCREDITATION AND MODERATION OPTIONS

Providers of learning towards this unit standard will need to meet the accreditation requirements of the relevant ETQAs.

Moderation Option: The moderation requirements of the relevant ETQAs must be met in order to award credit to learners for this unit standard.

UNIT STANDARD ESSENTIAL EMBEDDED KNOWLEDGE

The following essential embedded knowledge will be assessed through assessment of the specific outcomes in terms of the stipulated assessment criteria:

Learners can understand and explain that language have certain features and conventions which can be manipulated in a workplace environment. Learners can apply this knowledge and adapt language to suit different contexts, audiences and purposes.

Learners are unlikely to achieve all the specific outcomes, to the standards described in the assessment criteria, without knowledge of the stated embedded knowledge. This means that for the most part, the possession or lack of the knowledge can be directly inferred from the quality of the learners' performance. Where direct assessment of knowledge is required, assessment criteria have been included in the body of the unit standard. Learners acquire further knowledge of the workplace context, protocol and culture.

UNIT STANDARD DEVELOPMENTAL OUTCOME

N/A

UNIT STANDARD LINKAGES

N/A

Critical Cross-field Outcomes (CCFO):

UNIT STANDARD CCFO IDENTIFYING

Identify and solve problems: using context to decode and make meaning individually and in groups in oral, reading and written activities.

UNIT STANDARD CCFO WORKING

Work effectively with others, in teams and individually: using interactive speech in activities, discussion and research projects.

UNIT STANDARD CCFO ORGANISING

Organise and manage oneself and one's activities responsibly and effectively through using language.

UNIT STANDARD CCFO COLLECTING

Collect, analyse, organise and critically evaluate information: fundamental to the process of developing language capability across language applications and fields of study.

Understand the world as a set of inter-related parts of a system: through using language to explore and express links, and exploring a global range of contexts and texts.

UNIT STANDARD CCFO CONTRIBUTING

Contribute to the full development of oneself: by engaging with texts that stimulate awareness and development of life skills and the learning process in general and in the workplace.

UNIT STANDARD ASSESSOR CRITERIA

Assessors should keep the following general principles in mind when designing and conducting assessments against this unit standard:

Focus the assessment activities on gathering evidence in terms of the main outcome expressed in the title to ensure assessment is integrated rather than fragmented. Remember we want to declare the person competent in terms of the title. Where assessment at title level is unmanageable, then focus assessment around each specific outcome, or groups of specific outcomes.

Make sure evidence is gathered across the range as expressed under the title. Specific range statements under individual outcomes or assessment criteria are illustrations, from which Learning Program developers can select. Assessment activities should be as close to the real performance as possible, and where simulations or role-plays are used, there should be supporting evidence to show the learner is able to perform in the real workplace situation.

Do not focus the assessment activities on each assessment criterion. Rather make sure the assessment activities focus on outcomes and are sufficient to enable evidence to be gathered around all the assessment criteria.

The assessment criteria provide the specifications against which assessment judgements should be made. In most cases, knowledge can be inferred from the quality of the performances, but in other cases, knowledge and understanding will have to be tested through questioning techniques, verbally or written as determined by the assessment situation. Where this is required, there will be assessment criteria to specify the standard required.

The task of the assessor is to gather sufficient evidence of the prescribed type and quality, as specified in this unit standard, that the learner can achieve the outcomes more than once. This means assessors will have to judge how many repeat performances are required before they believe the performance is reproducible.

All assessments should be conducted in line with the following well documented principles of assessment: achievability, measurability, appropriateness, fairness, manageability and integration into work or learning.

All assessment should be valid, direct, authentic, sufficient, systematic, open and consistent.

REREGISTRATION HISTORY

As per the SAQA Board decision/s at that time, this unit standard was Reregistered in 2012; 2015.

UNIT STANDARD NOTES

Glossary

Audience:
The intended reader, listeners, or viewers of a particular text - in planning a piece of writing learners (speakers/writers) must take into consideration the purpose and audience in choosing an appropriate form of writing. Audience also refers to internal audiences, e.g. within the organisation and external audiences, e.g. partnerships - locally and internationally.

Coherence:
The underlying logical relationship, which links ideas together. Coherence is to do with ideas and meanings. A paragraph is coherent if all its sentences are connected logically so that they are easy to follow. An essay is coherent if its paragraphs are logically connected and the ideas have a unity, forming a logical whole.

Cohesion:
Linking ideas by means of language ( e.g. the grammar or syntax of a sentence or paragraph) - using logical connectors or linking words such as conjunctions, pronouns to hold a paragraph together and give it a linguistic unity.

Consensus:
An opinion or position reached by a group as a whole; general agreement or accord.

Context:

That which precedes or follows a word or text and is essential to its meaning;

The broader literal, social or cultural environment to which a text (or part of a text) is related and which affects its readers' understanding.

Conventions:
Accepted practices or rules in the use of language. Some conventions help convey meaning (e.g. the rules of grammar of a language, punctuation typefaces, capital letters); others assist in the presentation of content (e.g. table of contents, headings, footnotes, charts, captions, lists, pictures, index).

Creative thinking:
The process of thinking about ideas or situations in inventive and unusual ways in order to understand them better and respond to them in a new and constructive manner. Learners think creatively in all subject areas when they imagine, invent, alter, or improve a concept or product.

Critical thinking:
The process of thinking about ideas or situations in order to understand them fully, identify their implications, and/or make a judgement about what is sensible or reasonable to believe or do.

Editing:
The process of correcting grammatical, usage, punctuation, and spelling errors to ensure that the writing is clear and correct. The editing process also includes checking writing for coherence of ideas and cohesion of structure. In media, editing involves the selection and juxtaposition of sounds and images.

Fluency:
The word comes from the flow of a river and suggests a coherence and cohesion that
gives language use the quality of being natural easy to use and easy to interpret.

Forms of writing:
Any particular type of text, having specific and distinctive characteristics arising from its purpose, function, and audience.

Visual genres include photographs, documentaries, travelogues, feature films, soap operas, and cartoons. These can be analysed into more specific genres, for example, feature films could be grouped as westerns, thrillers, dramas, romances, musicals and comedies

Grammar:
A description of the structure of a language, particularly the way words and phrases are formed and combined to produce sentences. It takes into account the meanings, functions and organisation of these sentences in the system of the language.

Graphics:
A visual representation such as a chart, table, timeline, flowchart, or diagram used to record, analyse, synthesise, and assess information and ideas.

Implicit meaning:
Ideas and concepts that are present but stated indirectly.

Index:
Something that serves to guide, point out or otherwise facilitate reference such as a table, file or catalogue.

Inference:
A conclusion drawn from evidence.

Information processing:
A general term for the process by which information is identified, understood, stored, organised, retrieved, combined and communicated to form new knowledge.

Jargon:
Speech or writing used by a group of people who belong to a particular trade, profession, or any other group bound together by mutual interest, e.g. the jargon of law, medical jargon. Jargon is useful when used within a trade or profession, but when it is used to exclude listeners/readers from an interaction, it is potentially hurtful or even harmful.

Key questions:
There are five common questions that help discover the essential facts: who, what, where, when, and why? In newspaper reports, it is important to cover these questions at the beginning.

Learnership:
A coined word used in the place of what was formerly known as apprenticeship. It refers to structured, accredited learning taking place at the workplace. Three parties are involved in a learnership, namely the trainee (learner), the employer and the training provider.

Mind-map:
The preparation of a graphic representation of key words.

Multimedia presentation:
A work that uses a combination of media to present information and ideas (e.g. a presentation using slides, computer graphics, posters, and video clips).

Non verbal language/communication:
Communication without the use of words, which could be done by gestures or signs or could refer to total body language.

Obfuscation:
The deliberate use of words/phrases/jargon/idioms that will not be understood by the listener/reader. It is a clouding of the issue to avoid taking responsibility for an action or to confuse the listener into accepting something that should not be lightly accepted.

Paraphrase:
A restatement of an idea or text in one's own words.

Point of view:
The position of the speaker in relation to the text and audience (eg third-person/first-person).

Power relations:
When a particular individual or group dominates. This dominance could be related to gender, race, nationality, politics or language groups. In these unit standards, the focus is on how the use of language (the choice of words) indicates a relationship that is neutral, empowered or disempowered.

Reading strategies:
Skills and approaches used before, during and after reading to determine the meaning and increase understanding of a text. Examples are:

Scanning:
A type of reading used to locate a particular piece of information without necessarily attending to other parts of a text;

Skimming:
A type of reading used to identify only the main idea or ideas or to pick out any words in capitals/in italics/underlined, as well as any visuals or font indicators that would help a reader to understand a passage;

Sifting:
Selecting the most important ideas, words, facts or finding only those details relevant to a task or purpose.

Register:
Speech variety used by a particular group of people, usually sharing the same occupation or the same interests. A speaker/writer/presenter must choose words/images that are easily understood by the listener/reader/viewer - the pitch must suit the purpose.

Research:
Involves a systematic investigation involving the study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and seek out truth. The following stages are involved: selecting a topic, narrowing the focus, locating appropriate resources, gathering information, analysing material and forming conclusions, presenting the information in written and/or oral form, and documenting the sources of information and ideas.

Rhetorical question:
A question not asked for information but for dramatic effect. The question is usually either one that does not need an answer, as the issue is self-evident, or one that the speaker/writer proceeds to answer immediately.

Skills programme:
Part of a full qualification which must have at least one credit.

Slang:
Casual, very informal speech, using expressive but informal words and expressions. Slang is usually related to age or social group rather than to trade or profession (jargon). It is used to stress an identity for those in the know and to exclude those who do not know the terms, for example, words to describe money, grown-ups, police, and activities.

Syntax:
The way in which words are arranged to form larger grammatical structures (eg phrases, clauses, and sentences).

Technical language:
The terminology used in a field or understood by a trade, profession or group of people, eg in metalworking, the term "pig" means a mould for casting metal. It differs from jargon in being more generally understood and used, for example, by many people rather than a few and it does not have the negative connotations that the word "jargon" carries.

Text:
Texts refer to spoken, written, or visual communications, including sign language that communicates meaning to an audience or reader. A text may be considered from the point of view of its structure, context and function.

Tone:
The quality and timbre (distinctive character) of the voice used in speaking; the height of pitch and change of pitch which is associated with the pronunciation of syllables or words and which affects the meaning of the word.

Topic sentence:
The sentence that expresses the central idea in a paragraph.

Voice:
In writing: a work's distinctive style of expression, personal or impersonal, conveyed through the writer's use of vocabulary, and sentence structure. In oral communication: the quality of sound produced by a speaker. In grammar: a property of verbs (e.g. active and passive voice).

Writing process:
The process involved in producing a polished piece of writing. It comprises several stages. The main stages are:

Generating ideas

Choosing a form of writing to suit the topic, purpose and audience

Developing a plan for writing

Organising ideas

Writing and revising drafts

Editing

Proofreading

Producing and publishing

Venn diagram:
Graphs that use circles to present connections and intersections.

This information shows the current accreditations (i.e. those not past their accreditation end dates), and is the most complete record available to SAQA as of today. Some Primary or Delegated Quality Assurance Functionaries have a lag in their recording systems for provider accreditation, in turn leading to a lag in notifying SAQA of all the providers that they have accredited to offer qualifications and unit standards, as well as any extensions to accreditation end dates. The relevant Primary or Delegated Quality Assurance Functionary should be notified if a record appears to be missing from here.

All qualifications and part qualifications registered on the National Qualifications Framework are public property. Thus the only payment that can be made for them is for service and reproduction. It is illegal to sell this material for profit. If the material is reproduced or quoted, the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) should be acknowledged as the source.